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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26246863">The Second First Date</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarbWireThong/pseuds/BarbWireThong'>BarbWireThong</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Courtship [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: Legend of Korra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Korrasami - Freeform, Romance, The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 13:21:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,208</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26246863</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarbWireThong/pseuds/BarbWireThong</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Back from the Spirit World, a kidnapping had prevented Korra and Asami's first "real" date. Would their second attempt at it go any better?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Korra/Asami Sato</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Courtship [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906675</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>97</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Second First Date</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Asami was used to it. Her girlfriend would sometimes bulldoze her way forward when it came to their relationship, and then she would suddenly turn shy and uncertain.</p><p>She had pondered the matter, turned it over and over in her analytic mind, and in the end, she decided it was understandable. Korra had grown up sheltered, kept from the wider world by the White Lotus.</p><p>How was she supposed to learn about romance? About intimacy?</p><p>Korra had been fortunate to have the example of her parents. They had shown her what it meant to be part of a loving couple, but their courtship had obviously taken place before she had been born.</p><p>As for Asami? She, too, had been influenced by her parents, namely by the death of her mother. She had watched her father bury his pain following Yasuko’s murder, and subconsciously, she had learned all sorts of lessons about concealing her own feelings.</p><p>She was so good and so kind, however, that whenever she hid her heart, it was only because she was convinced it was in someone else’s best interest—like when she wanted to avoid making Korra look even more scared than she did faced with an army of metalbenders.</p><p>That was the expression she wore now that they were on their first date. First date, but it was actually their second go at it. Asami had been taken captive by Tokuga and the Triple Threats before an earlier scheduled romantic dinner.</p><p>“Do you like this restaurant?” Sato asked.</p><p>Korra’s knee was bouncing up and down rapidly. “Huh? Oh, yes. Yes, very much,” she said.</p><p>Asami gently prodded—if that was the case—what was it that was making Korra nervous?</p><p>“I just don’t want to screw this up,” sighed Korra. She seemed to suddenly realize what it was that had inspired the question and stilled her leg.</p><p>“You mean more than I ruined our first date by getting kidnapped?” Asami offered, only half-joking.</p><p>Korra made it clear that was not what she meant with a single, plaintive: “Asami!”</p><p>Sato laughed, which did appear to brighten Korra’s mood slightly—enough that Asami considered reaching across the table to take her hand. She eventually refrained.</p><p>Leaving her hands in her lap vividly reminded her of a dream she’d had in which she had been trying to hug Korra from within an armored mecha suit, while Korra kept running away.</p><p>Indeed, she looked very close to running away now.</p><p>There was a part of Sato that was flattered, maybe even amused, that she and she alone had this effect on her girlfriend. There was also a compassionate part of her that wanted to remove that fear. Her engineer’s brain calculated just what she needed to say to do so, but not before they were interrupted by the appearance of a waiter.</p><p>“Can I take your order?” he asked with a bow. He knew how distinguished these particular guests were.</p><p>Another look of panic from Korra.</p><p>Asami quickly jumped in to avoid any awkwardness. “Can you give us a few more minutes, please?”</p><p>“As you wish.” The waiter gave a second bow, and wandered away.</p><p>Korra started to scan the menu incredulously. “How do you know what this stuff is? And these prices are ridiculous!”</p><p>“Well, I’m treating my best girl.”</p><p>“Asami!”</p><p>“Honestly,” Sato assured her. “I can more than afford dinner…”</p><p>Korra rolled her eyes, so Asami leaned in and got more to the point.</p><p>“Korra, we’ve been on vacation before, told your parents about us, we’ve <em>kissed</em>,” she continued. “And wasn’t it you who asked me out tonight?”</p><p>It had been. That had been one of her bullish moments, probably because they’d already passed the threshold of asking each other out before. It was naturally when they were crossing <em>new</em> boundaries that Korra seemed to grow skittish.</p><p>She would not have to deal with the unfamiliar much longer, because right at that moment, there was a loud, booming explosion outside that caused the chandelier to shake. Explosions she was used to.</p><p>She stood up and cast a skeptical gaze at Asami’s red dress.</p><p>“It’s gorgeous, but that doesn’t look like a practical outfit for fighting.”</p><p>Asami responded by reaching into her purse. Korra smiled when her girlfriend pulled out the electric glove.</p><p>“But you did always did know how to accessorize.”</p><p>They raced out of the restaurant, shouting an apology to the waiter as they hurried past him, and stumbled upon members of rival gangs staging a turf war just streets away from where they had planned to spend the evening dining and staring into each other’s eyes.</p><p>Now they were back to what was rote, what was expected. Korra seemed more comfortable in a fight than she had seemed trying to flirt by candlelight.</p><p>This was familiar ground for Asami as well. Fighting was all geometry and physics to her. Lunge here to create leverage. Estimate mass to know whether to duck and dodge or counter a punch. Speed up now. Slow down then. Even in the chaos of a battle, she was calculating, and she took out several gang members as a result.</p><p>Korra, meanwhile, nearly took out an entire building. Earlier in life, she may actually have done so, but since then she had learned discipline and control—mostly.</p><p>“AND DON’T COME BACK!” she hollered at a fleeing member of the Triple Threats.</p><p>They waited for the police. Lin Beifong arrested those who had been unable to retreat and then thanked the girls in a tone that somehow still conveyed annoyance.</p><p>That left the ladies with a dilemma: It now felt too late for dinner, but too early to retire. They decided to take a walk through Avatar Korra park.</p><p>“This is nice,” mused Korra, taking Asami’s hand as she did so.</p><p>“You do seem a lot more at ease,” Sato observed, not unkindly.</p><p>“It’s just…Sometimes I don’t know what you want.”</p><p>Korra was smarter than almost anyone gave her credit. Though she still sometimes acted like a girl who would punch Asami to convey she had a crush on her, she also had moments of startlingly mature emotional insight, too. That she couldn’t tell what Asami wanted was a shock—and an epiphany.</p><p>As Sato attempted to calculate the ideal response, the calculator finally broke. Looking into Korra’s blue eyes she understood what the Avatar required wasn’t an optimal response, it was an honest one. Korra didn’t need her to be perfect. She needed her to be Asami. And the dream about Korra running away from her wasn’t about Korra’s fear; it was about Asami enclosing herself in armor.</p><p>Sato decided at that moment to forget everything that math, science, art, philosophy, and even engineering had to say on the subject and just trust Korra to accept her completely.</p><p>“I want you to remind me who I am every once I a while,” she answered.</p><p>Korra stopped and tilted her head slightly. “And who is that?”</p><p>Putting her fingers under Korra’s chin to lift it, Sato softly responded, “A woman who cares about you very much.”</p><p>Korra intuited the change. She saw Asami was being completely unguarded, and it was the one change that didn’t frighten her in the least.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks so much for reading! And if you found this story worthy of a comment, kudos, or bookmark, extra thanks for taking the time to interact. </p><p>I may have told you before, but when I write Korrasami fluff, it's my form of therapy. Here's hoping it brings you some joy, too. </p><p>Finding connection in 2020 is especially important, so if you want a Korrasami pen pal, need a kind word, some encouragement, or if there are just some things you feel more comfortable sharing with a stranger than the people in your real life, you can reach me at BarbWireThong@gmail.com.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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